The Random Wrestling Review- Podcast!

What else could the world need more in 2021, than yet another podcast featuring 3 white guys in their 30’s talking about wrestling?! Actually a lot more, but we’re hoping you’ll settle for this. Ben, Tom and Sam are 3 long-time friends who have each been watching wrestling for the last 30 years and here, each week, they will select a wrestling show from the past at random and then talk about it. It’s a heady mix of in-depth analysis, juvenile humour and everything in between.

WWE The Wrestling Classic

It was 30 years ago as of the week that I am writing this review that WWE’s The Wrestling Classic took place. It was a show that featured a one-night, special 16-man single elimination tournament as well as a WWE Championship match between title holder Hulk Hogan and his arch-nemesis, ‘Roddy’ Rowdy Piper. Held at the Rosemont Horizon, one of the regular big arenas in the North East territory that was the home to the World Wrestling Federation, as it was at the time, The Wrestling Classic featured no title changes, no major storyline twists or era defining upsets. It saw no huge victories and featured no first time gimmick matches. In fact, as a card it is fair to say that, aside from the fact that every match on the show was a singles bout, there was nothing particularly notable about it at all. However, this was a history making event that would set WWE on a course that would define its business and become the driving force behind its creative direction for the next 3 decades- it was the first pro wrestling pay-per-view event of all time.

WCW Halloween Havoc 1997

By October 1997, WCW had such a commanding lead in the Monday Night War that it seemed like they would never be caught by their rivals. WWE could present the first ever televised matches between two of the best wrestlers in the world if they wanted, but the WCW powerhouse could simply trot out the umpteenth meeting between two men in their 40s and easily trump the buy rate managed by WWE. That is exactly what happened during this month as WWE put on the first ever Hell in a Cell match (chronicled here in my review of In Your House: Badd Blood) which would see Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker go at it in what must go down as a true classic. That same month a few weeks later, Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan would have a match that was accurately described by Jim Cornette on WWE television as the ‘Age in the Cage’ featuring sub-par in-ring action, nonsensical rules and copious amounts of needless interference and yet still outdraw WWE in a big way with their main event at Halloween Havoc 1997.